1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to charcoal burning cooking grills and more specifically to an implement for a charcoal grill which concentrates the charcoal to get a hotter, quicker fire with less fuel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Charcoal cooking grills are commonly made in a rectangular shape or in the form of a large shallow bowl usually mounted on legs for outdoor cooking. There is a charcoal supporting surface which is generally horizontal which may also be flat or concave. Upwardly sloping sides support a cooking surface in the form of a grillwork with parallel bars across the opening at the top of the grill or with a combination of intersecting parallel bars at right angles for holding food to be cooked.
Charcoal cooking grills must have a cooking surface sufficiently large to conveniently hold a number of pieces of meat spaced apart for cooking. The size of the grill may be thought of in terms of the amount of cooking surface area present in a particular design. Because the owner of the grill is likely to be cooking for a number of people at the same time, such grills usually have a surface area sufficient to cook at least four large steaks at the same time.
In the usual case, charcoal briquettes are poured into the grill body on the charcoal supporting surface, spread around, and partially wet with a flammable charcoal lighter fluid which is used to initiate combustion of the charcoal itself. Because heat rises vertically, it is difficult to get a charcoal fire going with only a thin layer of briquettes. The usual result of such an attempt is a vast mass of flames which consumes an excessive amount of fluid with most of the heat being lost.
Usually the body of the grill is filled to a greater depth than a thin layer of briquettes by pouring in more charcoal briquettes to obtain a double or triple layer of briquettes in the body of the grill. This is more efficient for lighting purposes because the fluid is dispersed down through several layers of briquettes. The fluid which soaks into the lower level of briquettes burns at that level and the flames and heat generated by that lower level burning is much more efficient for igniting the briquettes above the area of burning.
An alternative method of lighting a charcoal grill is accomplished by building a cone-shaped pyramid out of the briquettes prior to applying the lighter fluid. To get a pyramid with some degree of angle to its sides, it is necessary to laboriously place the briquettes into position by hand. By resting briquette upon briquette in this manner a pyramid having steeper sides can be made. The pyramid method does have the advantage of increasing the number of levels of briquettes one above the other which further increases the efficiency of the ignition of the charcoal briquettes above the lower level by means of the rising heat and flames.
This method is still not satisfactory however because it necessitates handling the charcoal piece by piece which results in soiled hands and clothing and it still requires a large quantity of charcoal and thus a large quantity of ignition fluid because the natural angle of repose of charcoal briquettes in a pyramid shaped cone requires a large base area, otherwise the pyramid will collapse.
If an attempt to make a steep pyramid is made it requires skill in placing the individual briquettes and even then some of them will fall off abd because of the flames will be impossible to replace on the pile once ignition has begun. These briquettes will generally remain unlighted or take a much longer time to light. In effect they are lost. Since a certain minimum amount of briquettes is needed to have an effective pyramid a greater amount of charcoal than is really needed to cook for a small number of people is used.